Now more than ever, it's extremely important how fast and efficiently a business can sort, package and ship packages to their consumers. The speed in which a business is able to deliver a product to their consumer is linked to the overall success of the business. For instance, if it takes a business longer to sort, package and ship a package to a consumer than it takes their competitor to the do same, the consumer will almost always prefer to do business with their competitor. Loyalty to a particular brand company is no longer what sways consumers when making purchases, instead it whittles down to how fast the business can produce a result. Accordingly, over the past two decades large companies, such as Amazon® and Walmart® have invested millions of dollars on systems that enhance and expedite their sorting, packaging and distribution process so that their consumers receive their products as quickly as possible.
In the simplest of arrangements, a typical sortation system used by a company to sort their merchandise usually includes a mechanical carrier device attached to a tray that runs on a track through a distribution network. During the sorting process individual parcels are loaded onto trays attached to the carriers that are transported through the sorting systems distribution network to a discharge location. When a carrier transporting a parcel arrives at its discharge location, the tray on which the parcel is disposed on tilts and discharges the parcel onto a receptacle prepping the package ready for shipment. However, issues arise when packages or parcels transported on the carrier and tray are too heavy (e.g. exceed over 5 pounds). Parcels that are too heavy for the tray and carrier, if not perfectly centered on the tray, will sometimes cause the tray to unexpectedly tilt and erroneously discharge the parcel before it arrives at its designated discharge location. The erroneous discharge of a parcel may cause a system error that will either slow down or completely shut down the sorting process until the error is corrected. As a result, to avoid such a problem, which would ultimately affect the productivity of the business, packages sorted and distributed by these systems are limited by their weight (i.e. they do not typically exceed over 5 pounds). Meaning, businesses have to find alternative solutions on how to sort and distribute packages exceeding their systems limitation (e.g., by implementing additional sorting equipment to handle packages/parcels that are too heavy for their preexisting system).
Accordingly, there is a long-felt but, as-of-yet, unmet need for an improved sorting carrier and tilt tray system particularly suited for sorting and distributing heavy packages, and that overcomes the limitations of conventional sorting carrier and tray systems.